In a volunteer army, these people serve by choice (albeit perhaps not always for altruistic reasons). It is also the choice of this fellow to make their horrible experiences less so. While certainly I don't support endless war, I think this story is an uplifting one - a singular act of selfless kindness to add humanity to what is otherwise an inhumane situation. Certainly no one is coercing or paying him to do that. In fact, quite the opposite.
Many of the people go into the army to get a college education because their parents or they can't afford it compared with perhaps most of the readers of HN whose parents paid their way....
Guess again - war is a huge business. And it's very complicated. You'd be surprised how much of the US economy is derived from waging and supporting war. If you were to take that away, the cost would be surprising economic depression and joblessness. Way too many businesses are in the direct or indirect business of supporting war-faring. And that's terribly unfortunate, but a reality.
Forcing the draft won't do anything to stop war making. You'd have to remove the economic incentive, and that's too painful for anyone to do. Indeed, a Senator would probably sacrifice their own son if it meant keeping the coffers filled.
Perhaps that's worth the cost, but at this point, I would hesitate to say that it is a Complex Problem, which would necessitate a Complex Solution. Intractable, maybe?
As a 92 year old veteran with not much more life to live, I don't think that's how he's thinking about it. He understands what it's like to be in a terrible war and is doing what he can to at least make life livable.
Regardless of what you think of stupid wars, and yes they are all stupid with very few exceptions, we are all still human. And showing humanity in the face of inhumanity is not a bad thing.
Yeah, war really sucks, but I'd focus the vitriol on those who are getting us into these stupid wars, not the 92 year olds who are trying to be human to poor 18 year olds who went to war to pay for college or because they couldn't get a job.
> Obama promised to promote the peace corp and I've never seen one ad, but plenty for the military.
Perhaps because the Peace Corps isn't such a tough sell (you aren't going to war!), so they don't need to advertise to expand. Just more funding. Obama has increased the Peace Corps budget and as such there are more participants. I'm sure they receive plenty of DVDs from their loved ones.
